This is a trip report covering two flights with Blue1 in October 2012, on their last week operating their own flights and not just as a subcontractor for SAS.

I had just gotten back from my Asia-trip, during which I got the news that Blue1 were ending their own flights, and would in the future only operate flights on behalf of SAS. This change would go in to effect in early November.

I had been looking to fly KF for quite some time, mainly to try their exotic 717's, but if I also wanted to try Blue1 as an airline, the time-frame for doing that had now become quite a lot smaller.

So for the very day after I got back from Asia I booked myself a last minute youth return to HEL from ARN on two KF flights, both operated by 717's. The price was a total of 800 SEK for both flights, about 90 EUR.

The simple routing, shown with the help of Great Circle Mapper:October 24

Arrived at ARN 1½ hours before scheduled departure time.

I had checked in and printed BP's already at home, so I went right through the check-in hall to security.

FIDS:

Check-in hall:

I found myself airside less than five minutes after arriving at Terminal 5.

I went straight away through the terminal to the SAS lounge, where I indulged breakfast.

As boarding got closer I walked out to the end of the A-pier, where my gate was located.

At gate 7 I found a beautiful 717 waiting for me.

Not long after boarding was called, and I scanned my BP at the gate and went down the jetway.

KF842ARN-HEL
Boeing 717OH-BLH “Suven lähde – Summer Spring”

Once at the aircraft I learned that it was “Suven lähde” or “Summer Spring” which would carry me to HEL today.

I was greeted by the Finnish lady FA in the forward galley and once in the cabin I realized that OH-BLH still had the old seats installed. I was happy to see this since they were at the time being phased out and replaced by new grey-ish leather seats.

I had chosen seat 8F for this flight, and I reached it in no time.

Seat itself was pretty comfy. Pretty tight but okay legroom.

Nice and unobstructed view out the window.

The load was around 60%, I had a seatmate at the aisle seat but the middle seat remained open.

The cabin crew soon preformed their safety demo and we pushed back.

Then it was time to taxi.

Runway 01L was the departure runway of choice this morning, and we preformed a fairly powerful takeoff. It was an enjoyable one, and unsurprisingly it reminded me of the takeoffs of my beloved MD80's.

Runway 08/26, used for landings on this day:

Pretty nice view of ARN after takeoff:

It didn't take very long for us to reach safe height where the seatbelt sign was turned off and the crew begun preparing the service round.

Cabin view:

Overhead panels:

Seatpocket contents:

Nice slogan:

I was treated with some interesting views as I waited for the service cart to reach my row.

A place called Rimbo:

Part of the huge Stockholm archipelago:

Town called Norrtälje:

Nice views above the Åland sea:

The KF service concept in Economy was the same as SAS has, free coffee, tea and water. I had a coffee since I wanted one of those KF cups with a nice inspirational line on them, but alas, they ran out of KF cups right before me, and I got a normal SAS-branded one. I think they had more in stock but I didn't bother requesting one since I had one more KF flight coming up that day anyway.

The coffee itself tasted good enough and was washed down without any problems.

ARN-HEL is quite a short flight, so it didn't take long before descent was commenced. The crew cleared the trash and the seatbelt sign was soon turned on again.

Helsinki as seen during descent:

HEL:

We approached runway 15, and some nice views of runway 22R where an AY E-Jet was lining up for takeoff:

Wheels down!

Landing on runway 15 meant a short taxi to one of the Terminal 1 gates.

Views towards the terminals:

And parked at one of the T1 gates:

Deboarding didn't take very long, I stayed in my seat for a little while to deboard as one of the last ones.

This was my first time visiting this lounge, and I wasn't disappointed. A pretty nice SAS lounge with nice offerings.

It wasn't too busy but a few other people were around.

I spent most of my time in the lounge just nibbling on some of the offerings and taking advantage of the provided WiFi.

I became quite bored after a while though so I decided to head to the gate to watch my airplane arrive.

But first I looked at some other visitors to T1:

Probably operating for KF:

Golden Air... err sorry... Braathens Regional ATR's operating for KF (but maybe they were still known as Golden Air back then though...):

Gate 12, at the very end of Terminal 1, was assigned for my flight to ARN. Soon enough a 717 in a Star Alliance scheme showed up at the gate. OH-BLN would be my ride to ARN.

Gate area:

The inbound passengers were soon deboarded and boarding for ARN was called.

KF837HEL-ARN
Boeing 717OH-BLN

I boarded as one of the first ones and I was greeted by the female FA working in the front galley.

OH-BLN also had the old interior, with the blue cloth seats.

This time I went almost all the way to the back, to seat 22A. I had chosen this seat for this flight as I had sat in the front for the first one, and I now wanted to experience the sound and feel of the rear-mounted Rolls-Royce engines.

The legroom was slightly worse back here.

Boarding didn't take too long, the load was again around 50-60%, and I was treated with an open seat next to me.

The cabin crew preformed their safety demonstration and we pushed back.

Again the engines pushed us to a safe height in not too long of a time, and the seat belt sign was turned off.

The crew prepared and then preformed the service round, I again decided to have a cup of coffee, with a glass of water. This time the coffee was served in a KF-branded cup! Hurray!

”Never let what you can't do interfere with what you CANDO.”

After my beverages had been consumed I decided to do a lavatorial visit.

Aft emergency exit:

And I snapped a cabin picture on the way back to my seat:

Soon enough we begun descending as we reached mainland Sweden, or thereabout.

Apparently the Swedish coastline had gotten some clouds:

But at Arlanda it was better, we touched down on runwat 26 on schedule:

Just as we begun braking my camera ran out of power. It was expected though (I hadn't charged it since I got back from Asia the day before, spare some 30 minutes in the ARN lounge that morning) so I had my spare camera in my pocket.

ET B738 parked, waiting for the evening departure to ADD via CAI:

Leaving the runway:

We taxied to gate 5 at the A-pier, right next to gate 7 which I left a few hours earlier.

I thanked the crew and deboarded, snapped a picture of my ride as seen from the jetway and again from the terminal:

And then my trip to try out the Boeing 717 and Blue1 had come to an end.

To sum things up,

Blue1 was a nice little airline to fly with. The service concept of course reminded me a lot of mama-SAS so it probably haven't changed very much for anyone (in economy at least) after the change to SK-flight numbers.

HEL was nice as usual, no complaints regarding the SK lounge either.

The Boeing 717 was a very nice machine to fly on, and I hope we'll get to see it in the SAS group for many years to come, with the MD80's being gone from SAS some time in Q4, if I'm not mistaken.

Thank you all very much for reading my report, feedback and comments is appreciated!

Indeed it is, it was operated with a 757 via FCO for quite a long time, then last summer they made it a nonstop 757, and now for some reason they decided to make it a 738 via CAI. No 5th freedom rights on the ARN-CAI leg sadly, which they used to have on the ARN-FCO leg.

Quoting aerdingus (Reply 1):Thanks for this report, & well done on getting on one of their last flights

Good sense to take a trip while Blue1 were still operating as Blue1 and to get the 717 ticked on your to-do list. Shame that you didn't get the cup that you wanted on the first leg but good to see you managed to snare one on the way back.

A question though, will/ are the Blue1 aircraft be/ being repainted into SAS livery with perhaps just a line saying "Operated by Blue1" ?

Nice report on your 717 trip. It was a great day for flying judging by the pictures. And a good idea to sit once in the front, and once in the back.

Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter):I booked myself a last minute youth return to HEL from ARN on two KF flights, both operated by 717's. The price was a total of 800 SEK for both flights, about 90 EUR.

Quoting PlaneHunter (Reply 4):nice report about your trip on Blue1. Good to see you got a plane in Star Alliance colors.

Thank you, PH! Indeed that was a nice touch.

Quoting Quokkas (Reply 5):Good sense to take a trip while Blue1 were still operating as Blue1 and to get the 717 ticked on your to-do list.

Thank you, R. Indeed, the 717 was a nice bird.

Quoting Quokkas (Reply 5):
A question though, will/ are the Blue1 aircraft be/ being repainted into SAS livery with perhaps just a line saying "Operated by Blue1" ?

I'm not sure, as far as I know they will stay in the Blue1 livery for the time being. Who knows what will happen after the next heavy maintenance or so. The KF livery looks great, so despite how much I'd like to see the 717 in proper SK colors, I'm glad they aren't repainting them yet.

Quoting deltamartin (Reply 9):The KF livery looks great, so despite how much I'd like to see the 717 in proper SK colors, I'm glad they aren't repainting them yet.

Thanks for the reply. I agree that the Blue1 livery is very good looking, although perhaps not as good looking as Estonian (OV). I note that many of their (OV) flights are now being marketed as SK and with the current uncertainty regarding their future that is one livery I would definitely not wish to see disappear. Living in Australia I have missed out on enough regional carriers as it is.

For your next 717 flight you could follow Suryo's (Akhmad's) example and try out Cobham, who operate 717s for QantasLink, bookable using QF flight numbers.

Quoting Quokkas (Reply 10):Thanks for the reply. I agree that the Blue1 livery is very good looking, although perhaps not as good looking as Estonian (OV). I note that many of their (OV) flights are now being marketed as SK and with the current uncertainty regarding their future that is one livery I would definitely not wish to see disappear. Living in Australia I have missed out on enough regional carriers as it is.

Indeed, the OV livery is among the best ones in the sky as well, both the old and the revised livery.

Quoting Quokkas (Reply 10):
For your next 717 flight you could follow Suryo's (Akhmad's) example and try out Cobham, who operate 717s for QantasLink, bookable using QF flight numbers.

Will keep it in mind if I ever go down under, which I'll make sure to do one day.

Quoting HELyes (Reply 12):I hope the 717's can keep their nice colors for a while, they are among my favourite ones. I noticed the pretty 717's also fly from CPH to ZRH/GVA in March and to DUB in summer.

They will also do some domestic flying in Sweden this summer.

Quoting HELyes (Reply 12):
OMG that fat bom again, the fastest way to get a heart attack! :P

Great report! Looks like you've been quite busy lately! In any case I thoroughly enjoyed your report, it brought back fond memories of my own Blue 1 extravaganza.

Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): So for the very day after I got back from Asia I booked myself a last minute youth return to HEL from ARN on two KF flights, both operated by 717's. The price was a total of 800 SEK for both flights, about 90 EUR.

Do you by any chance happen to remember what the difference would have been from the youth fare to the 'normal' fare? Many airlines seem to have done away with the youth fares.

Quoting deltamartin (Thread starter): Runway 01L was the departure runway of choice this morning, and we preformed a fairly powerful takeoff. It was an enjoyable one, and unsurprisingly it reminded me of the takeoffs of my beloved MD80's.

I beg to differ. The rate of climb and the angle of attack granted, but the noise is really nothing like the MD-80.

Thanks for the kind words! I still have another 8 reports in the backlog, haha!

Quoting Knightsofmalta (Reply 14):
Do you by any chance happen to remember what the difference would have been from the youth fare to the 'normal' fare? Many airlines seem to have done away with the youth fares.

I didn't even check. But this route is very cheap with AY, SK/KF and DY competing.

Quoting Knightsofmalta (Reply 14):I beg to differ. The rate of climb and the angle of attack granted, but the noise is really nothing like the MD-80.

That's true. In this case I was seated in the front though, which was quite similar to being seated in the front of an MD80.

Quoting airbuseric (Reply 16):really cool to do this for a daytrip. So your first 717 flights got in the books right?

Thanks! Yes, my two only 717 flights so far.

Quoting airbuseric (Reply 16):Interesting you say so, I noticed the 717's appear to operate on SK flights CPH-AMS soon as well, so I might get on one again in due time I only flew on 2 examples so far, with KF and JK.

They will operate some domestic flights in Sweden this summer too, so I too might end up on a 717 again sooner than expected.

Good report and sure a nice way to spend some time on an almost extinguished species, the B717. Too bad you didn't get a plane with the newer cabin config but the 'wisdom coffee cup' surely made up for that!